Cincinnati Winter Beerfest 2013

Beerfest is back! I've been looking forward to this for quite some time. With this year's beerfest I made a concerted effort to only drink beers that I had never had before. There were a ton of great brewers there, all pushing a ton of great beer, so I had options. I also made an attempt to take some quick notes on each beer. As is understandable, those notes became less verbose and eventually disappeared as the evening wore on. It happens. I made an effort! To the beers!

OK, here are all of the beers I had and my notes that may or may not become less coherent as we go.


Hoppin Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale - Lovely aromas, hearty, pretty tasty. I'm going to have to check back in on this one come Christmastime.

Upland Raspberry Lambic - Super intense, incredibly tart. I'm beginning to think Lambics just aren't my thing.

Listermann Nutcase Peanut Butter Porter - Dry, very nutty, like it a lot. This one was pretty excellent. I've had other peanut butter beers that didn't have near this much peanut butter flavor. This is another one I'm excited to come back to.

Triple Digit Rum Barrel Aged Aftermath - I've become quite a big fan of Triple Digit and this one did not disappoint. It was pretty intense! Tons of malty flavor and lots of potent rum sweetness.

Uinta Sea Legs Barrel Aged Baltic Porter - This one was one of my favorites of the evening. Outstanding, smooth, drinkable, great roastiness, with a subtle fruitiness. Lovely.

Elevator Dark Horse - Nice biscuity caramel, very drinkable, not bad. Pretty tasty dark lager.

Mt. Carmel Nut Brown - Yes, shockingly, I had never had Mt. Carmel's Nut Brown, and that's a shame because this beer is just excellent.

Bell's Third Coast Old Ale - Tons and tons of complex fruity malt sweetness. Intense. Pretty great.

1/2 Hopslam 1/2 expedition - This was another standout of the evening. My friend Grant and I had seen something on twitter about layering Hopslam and Expedition and he went for it first. It was a great call. This was another of the standouts of the evening. Expedition overpowers a bit with the syrupy malty roastiness in the beginning but the Hopslam floral citrusy character comes through on the finish. Pretty delightful.

Epic Double Skull Doppelbock - Bready coffee malt. Lovely smoothness

Fat Head's Head Trip Belgian Tripel - This may have been my favorite of the night. Absolutely lovely. Incredibly drinkable, great fruitiness, spritzy, just delicious. I've got to get some more of this.

Blank Slate The Awakening - This one almost broke my streak of all new beers. I love Blank Slate and I've enjoyed all of their beers and also, their new Shroominous wasn't approved in time. But thankfully The Awakening was on tap. A very tasty Saison, a home brew competition winner. Lovely dry Belgian flavor. Very summery

Mad Tree PsycHOPathy - I was very excited to get my hands on more Mad Tree and this one didn't disappoint. Very crisp, very dry. Lots of piney flavor.

Fifty West Kofe Pozhaluysta - This coffee Russian Imperial Stout smells like a good French press and tastes even better. Really delightful. Incredibly drinkable for a big stout. This was another one of my favorites. I will most definitely be grabbing a growler of this very soon.

And from here on out is where my notes really begin to break down.

Boulder Never Summer Ale

Great Crescent IPA - Nice fruitiness, very drinkable

Two Brothers North Wind

Cellar Rats the Piper IPA

Left Hand the Stranger IPA

Grant, Alex, and I had VIP tickets for Saturday Night. We showed up early and still had to wait in line for a while, nothing too bad though. Apparently, more people got the memo that the VIP tickets were worth it because the VIP hour was noticeably more crowded than it was last year. Throughout the evening it seemed to be a bit more crowded than it was last year, but it seemed much more manageable. I don't know it it was better designed, or better laid out, or if there were more volunteers, or whatever, but the lines this year moved along quite briskly. I never felt like I had to grab a beer and then immediately get into another line right away like I did last year.

Another exciting thing about this year's beerfest was the emergence of more and more Cincinnati breweries. Mad Tree, Fifty West, Blank Slate, Triple Digit, Mt. Carmel, and Listermann all came very strong. Some of the best beers of the night came from my own back yard. That is pretty damn rad.

I'm already excited for next year

HD